When the Portuguese recaptured northern Brazil from the Dutch in 1654 and threatened to impose their version of the Spanish Inquisition, all 600 Jews in the port city of Recife fled the country on 16 ships. On one of those vessels, 23 Jewish men, women and children set sail for Amsterdam. But when Spanish pirates robbed their ship after a stopover in Jamaica, they got diverted to New Amsterdam (later, New York City). Overcoming efforts by the Dutch colony's governor, Peter Stuyvesant, to deny them citizenship, the penniless refugees went on to establish the first Jewish community on American soil.

To commemorate the 350th anniversary of their arrival, Dr. Joseph L. "Joel" Andrews presented "Revolutionary War Jews: Their Genealogy and Contributions to Colonial and Revolutionary America" on Sunday, June 13, at Hebrew College. Andrews, the only Jewish member of the Massachusetts chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, discussed how he traced his ancestry to Haym Salomon, the major financier of the Continental Army, and to Colonel Isaac Franks and Major Benjamin Nones, soldiers under General George Washington's command.

Despite their small numbers (approximately 2,500 out of 2.5 million Americans by 1790), Jews contributed disproportionately in money and manpower to the Revolutionary War effort, says Bernard Wax, director emeritus of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), which cosponsored the evening with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston (JGSGB). They also sparked a revolution from within. "Colonial-era Jews laid the foundation for a new type of Jewish community that did not revolve around rabbinic figures, a more democratic organization that continues to this day," Wax explains.

Dr. Andrews' talk headlined the JGSGB annual meeting in Berenson Hall. Affiliated with several Boston-area medical centers, Andrews founded and directs the Concord Guides Walking Tours and has written extensively on colonial and Revolutionary history.

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